


Prove Yourself

by ConvenientAlias



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bondage, Dubious Consent, Established Relationship, F/F, Predicament Bondage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 15:27:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18995383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/pseuds/ConvenientAlias
Summary: It's been maybe a year since Azula became Firelord, more than a year since Ty Lee was put away in the Boiling Rock. Now Azula's offering Ty Lee another chance to prove herself trustworthy.Ty Lee will take what she can get.





	Prove Yourself

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Wavesinger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Wavesinger/gifts).



“You look surprised, Ty Lee. Not expecting any visitors?”

Ty Lee had been in the Boiling Rock for more than a year, and in that time no one had come to visit her. She’d received a couple messages smuggled in from her family—Mai’s father being the warden did mean something, though it also meant Mai had been sent to a different prison entirely—but she wasn’t supposed to receive any visitors and she didn’t. She’d spent a lot of her time here in solitary, too, and little of that had been from her own misbehavior. Most of it was, as far as she could tell, a manifestation of Azula’s spite.

She had wondered at first if Azula would come to get her out of here, if she’d regret sending Ty Lee away. It had been an act of temper, after all. Sometimes Azula regretted what she did when she was mad.

But, she realized as the months passed on, even when Azula regretted her actions, she never took them back. That would show weakness, and the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation (now Firelord if Ty Lee had heard right) was anything but weak.

So she had come to accept that Azula wouldn’t be coming for her. But here Azula was, standing in front of Ty Lee’s cell with a guard on either side. Her robes were different now—more formal, for a Firelord rather than a princess—and her bangs were shorter, and she seemed to have lost a little weight. But she looked at Ty Lee almost the same way she had when they were last reunited: casual assessment with something unknown lurking behind it.

So Ty Lee responded the same way she had last time. “Azula! I can’t believe it’s you.” But Azula didn’t look satisfied. So the next tack: contrition. “I—I am so sorry for the way I acted last time.”

“The way you acted? That’s a nice way of putting high treason.”

High treason, in Ty Lee’s opinion, was a harsh way of putting the fact that Ty Lee had stopped Azula from killing a friend. But she bowed her head. “I know there’s no good excuse for what I did.”

“No, there’s not.” Azula’s arms were crossed. “I could understand Zuko leaving—he’s always been soft. I think it was the plans for the Comet that did it. After a while I could even understand Mai betraying me—she’s always liked Zuko better. I guess I didn’t realize that she was soft too, but I can understand it. But you, Ty Lee?”

She paused. Ty Lee started to speak, but the look in Azula’s eyes stopped her before she could get a word out. Cold fire, the coldest Ty Lee had ever seen them. And still those unknown emotions swirling behind her gaze. If only Ty Lee could get a gauge on them. She didn’t know what to say, and with Azula, you had to watch your words carefully. If this meeting went wrong it could easily end with her dead. Azula had almost killed Mai, after all. And from rumors around the prison, she wasn’t the most merciful ruler in Fire Nation history, either.

 So she stood still and watched Azula’s lips until at last they moved again, practically spitting out the words: “You weren’t in _love_ with Mai.”

And the emotions resolved into a picture. Oh.

That much venom—Azula wasn’t just angry at her, she was hurt. Hurt badly enough that she wanted Ty Lee to make it better.

Ty Lee wet her lips. “Of course I wasn’t in love with Mai, Azula. You know I could only ever love you.” She leaned forwards, hands against the cell bars. “That’s why I did it.”

“You _betrayed_ me because you _loved_ me?”

“I still love you. But I—”

“Don’t give me excuses,” Azula hissed.

Ty Lee bit her lip. Even angry, Azula’s eyes flickered down to her mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make excuses. It was a stupid thing to do, Azula. I made a big mistake.” She slumped her shoulders. “Could you ever forgive me?”

“I don’t usually forgive people,” Azula said, “as you know by now. And you broke my trust. You’ll have to prove that you won’t do it again.”

And Ty Lee’s heart leapt. Because that meant Azula was going to give her a chance to try.

Whatever that was going to mean.

* * *

 

Ty Lee had wondered whether Azula would make her prove her loyalty while still in prison—there were probably some things she could do there, after all, political prisoners she could spy on, tests Azula could force her through—but she had hoped Azula intended to let her out. This turned out to be the case, much to her delight.

“For now, your hands will stay cuffed behind your back. You’re still a traitor, Ty Lee, and for now you’re still a prisoner of the Fire Nation. I know your abilities. I’m not going to let you attack my soldiers and wreak havoc in my castle.”

“So are we returning to the capital, then?”

“Where else? I think you’ll like the changes I’ve made. Of course Father’s approved all of them.” She nodded to the guards to step back from Ty Lee after cuffing her hands, and Ty Lee walked behind her down the prison hallways.

She’d been in solitary, so it wasn’t until they turned a corner that they came into the sight of other prisoners. A couple yelled things—insults to Azula, who no political prisoner here could possibly like, or lewd comments about Ty Lee (she’d gotten quite a few of those over the course of the year). Azula turned to one of the guards. “Make sure anyone who comments about Ty Lee, or who has hurt Ty Lee during her stay here, receives punishment.”

“What sort of punishment?”

Azula shrugged. “I leave it to your discretion. Nothing too light.”

“Azula, you don’t need to—” Ty Lee bit her tongue when Azula glanced over at her with raised eyebrows, as if to ask her if she had anything to say, if she dared to question Azula’s judgment.

All the same, she thought to herself, a bit late for Azula to act protective when she’d been the one to put Ty Lee here in the first place. But if that was the role Azula wanted to play right now, Ty Lee would have to let her have it.

So she walked demurely behind Azula, wincing more than before at the prisoners who still chose to yell at her, more incensed by the promise of punishment than they had been by the evidence that she was leaving this place. But soon they were at the prison gate, the voices muffled behind them. Here was the warden, bowing and scraping and giving Ty Lee as many wary looks as Azula, even though in the time Ty Lee had been here he’d almost been a protector.

And then they were out and standing at the newly repaired gondola. It was the closest Ty Lee had been to freedom since getting thrown into prison, but as she stared at the opposite shore, she couldn’t help but remember that this was where they were when it all started.

(Started, or finished. In a way it started when she was first reunited with Azula, or maybe long before then—she’d always been doomed to do something to break Azula’s trust eventually. This was where it had finished between them, she’d thought, and apparently it was where things started again.)

Azula said to the guards, “I trust you can run this thing even when the passengers don’t have your warden hostage?”

They nodded with no retort.

“Good.” She pulled Ty Lee onto the gondola; a couple guards followed. They must have escorted her here in the first place. After all, a Firelord couldn’t travel alone, and Azula had no longer had Mai and Ty Lee to back her up. “Well then? What are you waiting for?”

The gondola creaked slowly into motion. Azula sat down and gestured for Ty Lee to do the same. “Are you happy to be going home?”

The best home Ty Lee had ever known was the circus, for the brief time she’d been with it. But the capital was certainly better than the Boiling Rock. “I’m very happy, Azula.”

“If you betray me again, I won’t be so lenient.”

“I won’t betray you, Azula. Honest.”

Azula’s hand rested on the back of her neck. Even when her manner was cool, her body always ran hot, even in the brush of her fingers. “We’ll see about that.”

* * *

 

It wasn’t the first time Azula had decided Ty Lee had betrayed her.

When they were kids, there were all sorts of little things. Ty Lee not showing up at parties Azula was at, because she had somewhere else to be or because she was feeling sick, even though Azula invited her—that was a betrayal. Ty Lee arguing with her in front of other people—that was a betrayal.

It was a betrayal to take Zuko’s side in an argument before he was banished. After he was banished, it was the unspoken rule that Ty Lee wasn’t allowed to bring him up first. If Azula brought him up, it was okay to talk about him, as long as she agreed with Azula; and Mai could bring him up now and again as long as she didn’t wax too romantic. Azula made allowances. But Ty Lee couldn’t bring him up first, not that she really wanted to anyways. Azula was paranoid that people would choose Zuko over her, like Zuko more than her, even though it was a little silly. There was nothing that interesting or attractive about Zuko, in Ty Lee’s opinion, and Azula was…

Azula was everything.

The stupidest betrayal was when Ty Lee had told Mai about her and Azula’s first kiss, and Azula had caught them talking about it. She’d been so angry. Ty Lee hadn’t realized she’d been doing anything wrong. Azula had been so confident, almost casual, about it; how could Ty Lee have realized it was meant to be a secret? She’d been certain that to Azula it had barely mattered, even if it had shook Ty Lee’s world. She’d thought that if she could laugh about it with Mai, maybe it wouldn’t matter to her either.

So yeah, Azula had decided Ty Lee had betrayed her before, and maybe Ty Lee even had betrayed her before, but this was the first time she’d really done it on purpose. A year in prison… for Azula, it really was lenient that she was being released at all. Ty Lee wondered what she’d have to do to earn it.

* * *

 

The journey back to the capital was not a very long one; the Boiling Rock wasn’t exactly close but it wasn’t far away, either—made it all the more convenient for political prisoners and traitors to be sent there whenever the Firelord needed to do so. Less than a week’s trip by airship, but for Ty Lee it felt like a year. Azula barely spoke to her, didn’t talk to her about anything important certainly, but she was always around. She watched when the guard fed Ty Lee (her cuffed hands made it too difficult for her to eat by herself), so intently that Ty Lee fought to swallow. She made her usual prickly comments, so hard to interpret. And she kept on touching Ty Lee—quickly, sometimes, so Ty Lee couldn’t react before she pulled away, or sometimes leaving a lingering hand on her back. But with Ty Lee’s hands cuffed she couldn’t touch Azula back. That was the point—it stopped her from hitting any pressure points, from using her body as a weapon—but now it was frustrating her in all other ways.

When Azula’s hand on her back sometimes brushed a little too low, when she brushed hair off Ty Lee’s cheek, it had to be sexual. But Ty Lee had no real way to react to it. It had her vibrating out of her skin.

(There was also the fact that Azula touched her so casually in front of the guards she had with her, which doubtless told them anything they wanted to know about her and Azula’s relationship. She fought not to feel embarrassed.)

When they arrived in the Fire Nation she was relieved if only because it meant she would be able to settle somewhere. Azula had told her she would be living in the palace, which certainly meant… something… and was not her home, nowhere near where her family lived, but still. She would be glad to settle in.

There were, of course, security measures.

“You’ll be living in the room next to mine,” Azula said.

“That’s great,” Ty Lee said brightly. It was probably because Azula wanted to keep a close eye on her. Though, on the other hand, it was also a room that had traditionally been used for Firelords’ mistresses and other illicit lovers. She knew the palace’s history well enough.

“There will be a guard at the door at all times, and one outside your window. Both the door and the window will be kept locked, and you will keep your cuffs on for now. These measures will be necessary until you prove I can trust you again.”

Ty Lee nodded. “Of course. Really, Azula, I—”

“Go and get settled, then. I have business to attend to. I’ve already wasted several days fetching you. I’ll talk to you later.”

Ty Lee could have pointed out that Azula hadn’t needed to fetch Ty Lee to the capital personally, but it would have been wasted breath. Azula hadn’t needed to personally recruit Ty Lee to capture Zuko and Iroh either, but between them things would always be personal.

Which. As she looked through the clothes and various other things in her new room (the clothes were a bit too large for her since she’d lost weight in prison, the room’s decorations were largely red and pink as one might expect) she thought about the fact that Azula had addressed the room’s first function but not the second. Except, perhaps, for the fact that she’d talk to Ty Lee later. Ty Lee couldn’t be certain what sort of talk it was going to be, but she could make a pretty good guess.

She prepared herself as well as she could, and was grateful when a couple maids came in the early evening to help her further—there was only so much she could do with her hands fastened behind her back. They helped her change clothes, gave her a quick sponge bath (there was no time to take her down to the palace bath, apparently) and combed and re-braided her hair. All hurried, but she felt more put-together than she had since being sent to prison. In prison she had been stripped down to bare humanity; now, she again felt like a daughter of the nobility.

“Is Azula coming soon?” she asked. She felt almost ready to present herself. A bit more confident than she’d been feeling lately.

The maids didn’t answer, but it was clear enough from the way they exchanged glances.

The bed was large and soft—it even had a canopy and curtains—very unlike the hard prison cots she’d gotten used to. She stretched herself out on it after the maids left, hoping Azula would find the sight alluring. That was probably the best chance she had of convincing Azula to not send her back to prison the first time she messed up, being alluring.

Besides, it was a matter of pride.

Azula came in the late evening. Walking briskly, snapping the door neatly shut behind her with a word to the guard outside. Drawing the window curtains just as briskly. Her manner didn’t betray any exhaustion, but there was a worn quality to her face.

“Do you want to lie down?” Ty Lee asked her softly.

Azula walked to the side of the bed and put a hand on Ty Lee’s face. That warm hand with those weird calluses that only firebenders had, formed by years of heat blisters despite little manual labor. Ty Lee leaned into the touch.

Azula smiled coldly. “Do you expect me to lie down with a traitor?”

“Azula, I’ve said I’m sorry. I’m not—”

“You’re going to be good for me now? So good for me?” Azula’s hand trailed down Ty Lee’s cheek to the crook of her neck, where her grip tightened. “So you’ve said. And you expect me to take your word for it: that you’re sorry, that you’re going to be better.”

“I’m not lying to you. I wouldn’t—”

“Calm down, Ty Lee. I’m giving you your chance, aren’t I? A chance to prove your loyalty.” Azula withdrew her hand. “You can start by getting off the bed. You’re acting a little too comfortable, aren’t you?”

Ty Lee scrambled off as soon as Azula had backed away enough to allow her to. “I’m sorry.”

Azula sighed. She seemed to be examining the bed’s canopy. She pulled at the curtain and frown at how the canopy moved. “No, I guess not…” She turned to the room’s bureau, seemed discontented, then to the curtain rod near the window. This at last seemed to meet her expectations. “Over here, Ty Lee.”

Ty Lee obediently walked over to the window. She stood there, back brushing the curtains, as Azula hunted through her drawers, eventually coming up with a long ribbon. The type that would generally be woven into a braid or hairdo rather than used to tie up the end. She also pulled out a handkerchief. Holding the ribbon and handkerchief in one hand, she pulled a chair over to Ty Lee’s side and climbed on top of it. “Hands up, Ty Lee.”

Ty Lee instinctively tried to bring her hands forward, having forgotten the cuffs. This failing her, she leaned forward so that she could lever her arms upward in the back. It was a good thing she was flexible, but the angle was terrible.

Azula caught hold of the short chain between the two cuffs and threaded the ribbon through one of the links. Then she threaded the ribbon around the window’s curtain rod as well, and tied a tight knot. She stepped down from the chair. “Comfortable?”

Not even slightly. Ty Lee tried to move her arms at an angle where she could stop leaning forward, but it was impossible. And even leaning forward, her arms and back twisted to hold the position. She lifted her head and smiled at Azula. “If I’m where you want me to be, then of course.”

Azula hummed. She pulled the chair away from the window and brought it back to its original place next to a dressing table. “I do want you to be there, Ty Lee. I’m glad you understand.” She yawned. “Well, it’s been a long day. I think I will lie down after all, if you don’t mind me using your bed.”

That was a test, though a smaller one than this overall situation. “It’s more your bed than mine. This is your palace, after all. You’re the Firelord.”

“Very right, Ty Lee. Well, good night.”

* * *

 

When Azula first learned how to bend blue fire, a lot of people were scared of her. It was not a common skill; besides, this, the glee with which she used it, and the ease, were both unnerving. Her own teacher stood at a greater distance when they practiced, and most kids her age stopped being willing to practice with her. Most of them didn’t even want to be around her (though this wasn’t entirely because of the blue fire thing) and when their parents sent them to visit anyways, to garner favor, they made their discomfort and fear all too obvious.

“Everyone’s afraid of me,” Azula told Ty Lee. They were alone in the garden, Mai and Zuko having wandered off together as they were wont to do. “Everyone.”

“Mai and Zuko and I aren’t,” Ty Lee assured her.

Azula raised her eyebrows. “You’re actually saying Zuko isn’t afraid of me? Don’t lie, Ty Lee.”

“Maybe he’s a little scared,” Ty Lee admitted.

“He’s a little coward.”

“Okay, maybe. But that’s just Zuko, and he’ll get over it. And I’m not scared of you. I love you, Azula.”

She tossed this word at Azula sometimes, love, even though Azula never tossed it back. Azula kissed her, so it seemed only right. Besides, she could tell that, somewhere behind her poker face and typical scoff, Azula liked hearing it.

Well, usually she liked hearing it. Today she smiled instead of scoffing, and said, “So you love me and you’re not afraid of me, Ty Lee?”

“Of course.”

“All right then. Prove it.”

She ignited a flame on her palm, a small spike of blue fire. When she stepped closer to Ty Lee, Ty Lee almost flinched away, but she knew better. Instead she stood very very still as Azula held the fire under her chin. Her neck and face sweltered. Later she might have blisters. But right now she met Azula’s eyes and smiled confidently, as if it didn’t bother her at all.

Azula took the flame away from her chin then and held it up to her face instead, closer and closer until Ty Lee thought her eyelashes would be singed. At last she folded her hand, letting the fire extinguish itself.

“You’re very good at controlling that,” Ty Lee said. Her voice didn’t shake at all.

“I am,” Azula said. “I never make any mistakes.” She stared down at the ground. “It’s so stupid. Why is everyone afraid of me?”

“I’m not,” Ty Lee told her again, even though her face still hurt from the heat. And she hugged Azula and kissed her, and Azula kissed her back.

She’d passed that test.

* * *

 

But some tests were harder than others. Holding one’s arms up behind one’s back, for example, was the kind of thing that sounded easy but got harder and harder as time passed. Ty Lee tried to figure out what position would be the most comfortable. She couldn’t avoid leaning forward, but maybe she could bend her knees a little to decrease—no, that didn’t work because the ribbon wasn’t long enough. Okay, so maybe if she turned—or if she tried to straighten and bend her arms at a different angle…

The strain on her back continued regardless, no matter how she moved. Different positions hurt in different ways. She could make the stress land more on her waist, on her shoulders, on her sides, but she couldn’t make it stop. Worse was holding her arms up. When she let them hang from the cuffs, the cuffs bit into her wrists, and the ribbon began to strain. But to keep holding them up was exhausting.

No matter what position she tried, whether she tensed her arms or let them hang, she at least needed to remain standing for one simple reason: there was no way that little ribbon could hold her whole body weight. She couldn’t even tell how secure the knot in it was. If she let herself collapse, she’d either break the knot or break the ribbon. One or the other. Either way, Azula wouldn’t be pleased.

Azula.

She had actually fallen asleep. Ty Lee felt mildly indignant. Here she was, doing her utmost to pass another of Azula’s tests; shouldn’t Azula actually be paying attention? Back in the day, she used to watch Ty Lee closely when she held fire up to her face or whatever. Apparently it wasn’t worth her time anymore. She’d bent away all the fire in the room and sank into Ty Lee’s bed and fallen asleep without another word to Ty Lee. Ty Lee knew better to disturb her, but. Seriously?

She gritted her teeth. Of course Azula would do whatever she wanted. She’d left Ty Lee in prison for a year, and certainly hadn’t been keeping an eye on her then. This was a way of showing Ty Lee that she didn’t care, not really, that Ty Lee would have to prove herself to even be worthy of her attention. By somehow holding herself in this impossible position for hours until Azula woke up.

Fuck.

_Think on the bright side_ , she told herself. _At least you get a chance_. Mai was still in prison somewhere, not even on the Boiling Rock but in some other remote place. Ty Lee could have been left in prison too, and instead she was here, in the capital, in the palace, in Azula’s life… and yes, being subjected to worse corporal punishment than the Boiling Rock had forced on her, but not every day would be like this. Azula was just mad. And she had a right to be.

_Even though all I did was protect Mai. I would have done the same for her. Why can’t she understand that? Why_ …

A princess—no, a Firelord—had the right to be mad about anything.

Her muscles had gone from being tired to burning, and she could feel the sweat gathering on her brow, on her back, between her breasts. The maids earlier had put her in a very nice shirt and pair of pants, and only for this. She might as well have stayed in prison clothes. Maybe they would have made Azula less mad.

Though, who knew what had made Azula mad? Or maybe she wasn’t even mad, just acting according to plan. Ty Lee had known that Azula would discipline her, just hadn’t known how. Impossible to predict her.

When Ty Lee twisted her head enough to see through a crack in the curtains, she could see it had grown very dark. The crack wasn’t wide enough to see if any stars were out. She wished she could get a good look at the view. In all her time in the Boiling Rock she hadn’t had a good look at the night sky. She’d missed it.

She used to find constellations with Azula sometimes. She liked the legends about the stars, that they were spirits watching over everyone at night; Azula believed they were just balls of fire but liked them all the more for it.

If only Azula could always be so soft. But nights like that had always been rare, after all.

In the end, it was her knees that failed her. She stumbled and fell, and before she could catch herself, pull herself back up, the ribbon snapped. The sudden loss of tension left her even more off-balance, and she smacked head-first into the ground.

Ouch.

When she looked, she saw the ribbon had broken in the middle; the knot had held. Azula knew how to tie knots, after all. Ty Lee, on the other hand, had failed.

A lump rose in her throat, and she forced it down. Crying would wake Azula. Azula would be mad. But let her anger wait until morning, at least. She wouldn’t appreciate being woken any more than she would appreciate seeing Ty Lee’s failure. Sniffing, Ty Lee curled into a ball on the floor and tried to catch a little sleep herself.

* * *

 

She woke to a foot in her ribs. She tried to push herself up on instinct, but found herself hindered by her cuffed hands. Azula nudged her again, then used her foot to flip Ty Lee onto her back, trapping her arms under her.

Ty Lee’s eyes flickered to the ribbon, still lying on the floor where she’d left it in the night. It was red, and stood out on the floor like a line of blood.

“I told you I wanted you standing with your hands tied to the rod, didn’t I?” Azula said.

Ty Lee gulped. “I’m so sorry, Azula. I really did try. I guess I wasn’t strong enough.” She couldn’t bring herself to mention the flimsiness of the ribbon, or how long Azula had left her standing. Anything that would indict Azula would not be welcome right now.

Azula shook her head. But she didn’t look quite as angry as Ty Lee had expected. Her face was less tired than it had been last night, though perhaps a little sleepy, her hair a bit rumpled. “Well, you’ve never been perfect, Ty Lee. How long did you try?”

“As long as I could.”

Azula nodded. Then she grabbed Ty Lee’s shoulders and hauled her up, onto her knees. Ty Lee, body still worn out, would have collapsed again immediately, but Azula pulled her forward so that she could lean against Azula’s legs.

Her head nestled Azula’s waist.

Azula ran a hand over Ty Lee’s hair. “You were in my dreams last night, you know.”

“Was I?”

“You told me to go to bed, and even when I put you in your place you snuck into my dreams. Seems a little naughty, don’t you think?”

“I guess. I’m—”

Azula yanked at Ty Lee’s hair, making her squeak. “Bad girl. What are you going to do to make up for it?”

“I…” Would Azula force her to stand again? Ty Lee wasn’t sure she could take it. And she’d just woken up. But, “anything you want.”

Azula stroked Ty Lee’s brow, smoothing her hair down again. “Good.”

She was still wearing her robes from the night before, which had come straight from some sort of meeting. Now she shrugged the upper layers off, and pulled her pants down a little, holding Ty Lee up with one hand. Ty Lee watched and waited.

This kind of test was, fortunately, one she had a lot of practice with. It was a lot easier.

It was even fun, when Azula let it be.

Azula fingered her clit for a moment before pulling Ty Lee in, and Ty Lee took over eagerly. All she had to use was her mouth, which was a bit of a disadvantage, but it wasn’t the first time. And she’d missed this, in some ways. She’d missed the taste of Azula slick on her tongue, the thrill of letting her tongue explore Azula’s folds. She’d missed Azula’s hands on her head, sometimes clenching her hair, other times just holding her steady.

She’d always loved the fact that she could make Azula make little noises, shift her weight, affect her on such a basic level. Azula had always tried to play it casual, like she was the one in charge of this, what they did, but Ty Lee could make her come apart at the seams. Not that she ever would. There were definitely people out there who would have scorned Azula for this kind of vulnerability, but Ty Lee loved it. Loved it all the more for its rarity.

With the slightly salty taste of Azula on her tongue, she dove deeper and deeper, then surfaced to nibble at Azula’s clit. Azula thrust her hips and panted. Her hands moved to Ty Lee’s shoulders and they clenched for dear life.

Around now Ty Lee would have fingered her if she had the use of her hands. But she got the job done. By the time Azula pulled away, she was clearly satisfied. Ty Lee, still exhausted, sat on her heels.

“You haven’t lost your talents,” Azula said, panting slightly. Then, unnecessarily nasty: “Did you get much practice in prison?”

Ty Lee said, “No.” This was true. She hadn’t had sex in prison at all.

Azula leaned back on her heels, studying Ty Lee. Then, abruptly, she left the room. Ty Lee could hear her talking to the guards outside the door but her voice was muffled, and it was impossible to make out any specific words. Though Ty Lee was certain she’d heard her own name at least once or twice.

She’d heard some of the circus performers she used to work with say their lovers called their names during sex. It had been something of a brag for them. Ty Lee had once or twice said Azula’s name during sex after that, but Azula had never said Ty Lee’s. Wistfully, Ty Lee thought that if might have been rather nice. But it was like the word “love” for Azula—some things were off-bounds.

* * *

 

Azula visited her again that night, and this time she did lie down next to Ty Lee, though she did nothing as sentimental as putting her arms around her. In a careless voice, she said, “You can tell me your excuses now, if you want.”

“I was very tired. Holding the handcuffs up was difficult, and I’m not as flexible as I was, I haven’t practiced much since…”

“Not about that,” Azula snapped. She rolled over so Ty Lee couldn’t see her face, only her back. Though it was a nice back. “Your excuses for betraying me at the Boiling Rock. I know you think you had a good reason. It’s all over your pitiful face every time you look at me.”

“I know there’s no excuse, Azula.”

“I said I wanted you to tell me. So you’re going to tell me.”

Feeling she was on shaky ground, Ty Lee said, “I didn’t want you to kill Mai.”

“But you don’t love Mai.” Azula sounded more confident about this fact than when they had first reunited, though there was still a hint of anger there. It was funny; Azula had never been jealous of Mai before—Zuko, maybe…

“No,” Ty Lee said, “I don’t love Mai. Only you. That’s why I had to stop you.” She nuzzled her chin against Azula’s shoulder. “I knew you would regret it later if you killed her. And you were going to use lightning.”

“I wouldn’t have regretted it,” Azula said. “I regret not killing both of you more. That was stupid.”

“Maybe.”

“I don’t need you to think you know I feel about things like that. You’re not the Firelord here, are you?”

“No, I’m not.”

“You won’t do something like that again.”

“I won’t,” Ty Lee promised. At times like this, she always made herself believe that she wouldn’t have to do anything that would upset Azula again, that from here on out everything would be clear sailing. It was impossible, but she could always hope. So her promise was never quite a lie, really.

Azula sighed. “You know I can’t trust you just because you say I can.”

“I know. But I’ll prove myself to you, Azula.”

“We’ll see.”

She rolled back over and gave Ty Lee a long, gentle kiss, and Ty Lee relished the heat of her tongue.

The truth was, of course, that Azula wanted to trust Ty Lee. It hurt her when she couldn’t. That was Ty Lee’s one advantage, but it was a good one. It meant that even if Ty Lee failed Azula’s tests over and over and over again, Azula would give her another chance. After all, it wasn’t really Ty Lee proving anything to Azula. It was Azula proving Ty Lee’s loyalty to herself—and proving to herself that she wasn’t being naïve in allowing herself to trust anyone at all.

“Don’t be stupid,” Azula said, when their lips parted. “I wish you wouldn’t be stupid, Ty Lee. You’re a reliable warrior, otherwise. Do you know how much trouble it was finding someone to do your work?” She kissed Ty Lee’s neck.

“I’m sorry,” Ty Lee said. _You missed me. I guess I am a little sorry about that. Though it wasn’t my fault, you know. If you hadn’t pushed me away, I wouldn’t have left. Not that time, anyway_.

 Swallowing resentment, she kissed Azula back. No good dwelling on feelings like those. She loved Azula; she had to, for one thing. But she did. She loved Azula. Sometimes that meant letting things go. A year in prison wasn’t easy to let go, but she would, even though Azula hadn’t asked for forgiveness, even though there was no guarantee Azula wouldn’t send her back there again. It was important that Azula be able to trust her, but it was a given that she’d never be able to trust Azula. That wasn’t how any of this worked. Azula would never be in her corner, but Ty Lee would always love her.

But it was better to kiss and to lie together than to sulk. Tomorrow would bring what it would bring: new tests and new betrayals, no doubt. But tonight Ty Lee was the good girl and Azula was soft and warm, and everything was perfect. You didn’t get many nights like these, and none at all in prison. Ty Lee was grateful for the chance to experience nights like these again. Really. Honored.

Lying with a Firelord was the best you could get; she’d be a fool not to appreciate it. And Ty Lee was no fool.


End file.
